Darvish deals with blister, will make next start

ARLINGTON, Texas --Yu Darvish exited Sunday's 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels with a recurrence of a blister issue. Before that, he pushed himself through five innings by using his two-seam fastball and split-finger fastball.

Darvish struggled with his command in the first inning with two walks and a hit batter. He finished with four walks and allowed three runs.

"I had trouble with my control today," Darvish said. "So with the situation that I had, I had to make the best of the situation. And select the pitches I could throw and get outs with them. That's the reason why I selected those pitches tonight. I threw them a lot more than normal."

Darvish said it's not really a blister, but part of his skin that came off on the inside of his ring finger on his pitching hand. There's no much special treatment he can use on the finger, Darvish said, so he just has to be careful when he pitches.

The finger issue developed during his near perfect game Tuesday at Houston. Darvish retired the first 26 Astros in order before Marwin Gonzalez singled up the middle. Darvish went through his normal routine between starts, and doesn't anticipate the finger being an issue.

He was able to make it through five innings Sunday because he minimized damage in the first inning. Darvish walked Mike Trout to start the game, then hit Erick Aybar with a pitch and walked Albert Pujols to load the bases.

Darvish was helped out by a struggling Josh Hamilton. Darvish was able to get ahead with a strike, then threw a slider that Hamilton grounded into a double play to second base.

"Yu Darvish really did good damage control there," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Yu settled down and kept us around until we were able to put some more runs on the board."

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